I guess we gotta talk about this Tony La Russa stuff from the other night. It’s example number #7568398 of baseball’s “unwritten rules” clashing with the views of young fans and exciting players.

What happened is this:

On Monday, Chicago’s Yermin Mercedes swung on a 3-0 pitch in the ninth inning of a game the White Sox were winning 15-4. The opposing Minnesota Twins had infielder Willians Astudillo on the mound, and he threw a 47 mph meatball over the plate that was crushed out of the ballpark:

The ClifsNotes here is that you’re not supposed to swing on this, because you’re rubbing it in the opponent’s face and being disrespectful when you’ve already got a big lead.

White Sox Manager La Russa criticized Mercedes, saying this via ESPN:


“Big mistake,” La Russa said Tuesday. “The fact that he’s a rookie, and excited, helps explain why he just was clueless. But now he’s got a clue.”

Because of the large deficit, the Twins were pitching infielder Willians Astudillo at the time. He got behind Mercedes 3-0 before basically lobbing the ball to the plate. Mercedes crushed it, then celebrated with his teammates while his manager seethed.

“I took several steps from the dugout onto the field, yelling, ‘Take, take, take,'” La Russa recalled. “The way he was set up, it looked to me like he was going to swing.

“I was upset because that’s not a time to swing 3-0. I knew the Twins knew I was upset. … He missed a 3-0 take sign. With that kind of lead, that’s just sportsmanship and respect for your opponent.”

It’s another “unwritten rules of the game” kind of thing, and in response, the Twins threw at Mercedes on Tuesday night, which resulted in reliever Tyler Duffy and manager Rocco Baldelli being tossed:

This is just another Fernando Tatis, Jr. situation. Exciting young player swings on a pitch he shouldn’t swing on, based on the unwritten rules of the game. Old veteran manager then rips him publicly for doing it while a younger generation of baseball fans write off the situation as no big deal. They’ll say things like, “if the Twins didn’t want this to happen, they shouldn’t have given up double digit runs in the first place.” It’s that kind of thinking, similar to what we got in that Saints/Eagles blowout from a few years ago, when Sean Payton when a bit dickhead on us.

The thing about baseball is that it’s not football or basketball. You can’t just take a knee or dribble out the clock. If Mercedes takes a few more pitches he probably gets on base with a walk, but we’re no closer to ending the blowout. So what do you want the guy to do? He’s playing the game and swinging on a crap pitch thrown right down the middle of the plate.

If that’s such a big deal, then let’s take the “unwritten rules” and add them permanently to the rulebook, or else this generational divide lingers and the vicious cycle of infraction –> retaliation –> ejection continues, ad infinitum.